8/10: Heavy Metal Television hiring music video DJs in Phoenix

Where: Zia Record Exchange, northeastern corner of west Camelback Road and North 19th Avenue, Phoenix.

Admission: Free.

Details: 602-241-0313, heavymetaltelevision.com.

By Ed MasleyThe Republic | azcentral.comTue Aug 6, 2013 2:14 PM

As the brains behind “The Greatest Music Ever Created and How it Ruined Our Lives,” an Internet music show produced in Mesa, Eric Braverman had interviewed such long-haired luminaries as Ted Nugent, Metallica, Slayer and Slipknot.

But he thought he could do more for metal, Braverman says, if he had his own MTV-style network. And he wanted it online.

“I didn’t understand why Iron Maiden wasn’t on Jay Leno all the time,” Braverman says with a laugh. “So I was like, ‘Can I just make my own heavy-metal television channel that works like an actual TV channel?’ And my technical people were like, ‘Yeah, you can.’ ”

He found financial backing in Sharon Chambers of Down to Earth, a music-management company in Los Angeles. And with that funding, Heavy Metal Television made its Internet debut Oct. 30 — or Devil’s Night.

“For our demonic friends,” Braverman says with a laugh.

Streaming worldwide 24 hours a day at no charge to the viewer at heavymetaltelevision.com, the network he came up with covers more than 40 years of metal history, from the days of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin to artists as recent as Five Finger Death Punch and the Butcher Babies. It even has a cast of veejays (like the early days of MTV), to which it hopes to add after open auditions Saturday, Aug. 10, at Zia Record Exchange in Phoenix.

“It runs just like a cable network,” Braverman says. “The Internet becomes your television, and your URL is your spot on the dial. It’s like Channel 13. And when you go there, there’s no choice. You cannot navigate us. When you go there, you’re just in the middle of whatever’s going on, for everybody in the world at the same time.”

That’s part of what Matt Strangwayes, lead singer of Phoenix-based metalheads Greenhaven, likes about it.

“The cool thing about Heavy Metal TV,” says Patrick “Prophet” Flannery of Phoenix metal veteran St. Madness, “is that they play anything from Motley Crue to Lamb of God, and it’s all metal.”

Braverman is something of a heavy-metal missionary, out to spread the gospel.

“Well, you know, I am the biggest heavy metal fan ever to live,” he explains with a laugh. “But people don’t care about heavy metal in the proper way. It’s the most maligned awesome music. You go to an Iron Maiden or a Metallica show, and they’re the biggest shows you can see with the most loyal fans. They’re the best musicians. They seem to have the most fun.

“So I was like ‘Let’s help these bands.’ And we don’t ghettoize the young bands. We’ll play a young band next to Zeppelin, next to Slayer, next to Def Leppard, next to Goatwhore, Amon Amarth or Arizona’s own Job for a Cowboy.”

In addition to “The Greatest Music Ever Created and How it Ruined Our Lives,” Braverman’s metal credentials include having co-written the booklet to the Slayer box set, “Soundtrack to the Apocalypse,” and having directed “Metallimania,” a 1997 documentary on Metallica and its fans that was billed as “the most unreasonable rock and roll documentary ever produced.”

“I’ve always got some kind of metal project going on,” he says.

His latest project, Heavy Metal Television, recently passed 300,000 unique visitors whose IP addresses have logged on to check it out. And that’s without Braverman spending a dime on advertising or promotion to carve out his own niche in the industry.

“When there are 2,000 people logged on from Taiwan with the rest of us,” Braverman says, “that’s a pretty good feeling.”

The ultimate goal for the network, he says, is “to help keep this music alive.”

Brian Slagel, the CEO and founder of Metal Blade Records, calls Braverman’s network “a great way for metalheads to see classic videos as well as the latest music videos out there.” That’s why it’s “also a great discovery tool” Slagel says, “as new bands are in rotation with the classics, making it easier (to) be turned on to up-and-coming bands in our scene.”

The network has picked up a number of sponsors since its soft launch in October. Now it’s looking to expand its cast of veejays through open auditions at Zia. Presented in conjunction with Metal Blade Records and Troop Fuel Energy Drink, the open call for online/on-air metal jocks begins at 6 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 10 (although interested parties need to sign up to audition between 5 and 6 p.m.).

In addition to Braverman, Saturday’s judges will be St. Madness vocalist Flannery, Sacred Reich drummer Greg Hall and Phoenix New Times Metal Mondays blogger Lauren Wise. Each audition will be videotaped for use on Heavy Metal Television — even, or especially, the bad ones.

Asked what advice he would give potential veejays before they audition, Flannery says, “I would say, ‘Know your material.’ If you’re doing a heavy-metal channel, learn as much as you can about heavy metal before you go to try out, because if you walk in there completely blank and some of the judges ask question about a certain band or a different type of metal, it makes you look kind of dumb if you have nothing to say.”

They’re ultimately looking for real metal fans. Like them.

“I like that it’s done by fans of heavy metal,” Strangwayes says. “It’s by the people, for the people. And it’s not about the money. It’s about the music.”

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Twitter.com/EdMasley

Posting a comment to our website allows you to join in on the conversation. Share your story and unique perspective with members of the azcentral.com community.

Comments posted via facebook:

► Join the Discussion

Join the conversation! To comment on azcentral.com, you must be logged into an active personal account on Facebook. You are responsible for your comments and abuse of this privilege will not be tolerated. We reserve the right, without warning or notification, to remove comments and block users judged to violate our Terms of Service and Rules of Engagement. Facebook comments FAQ

Join thousands of azcentral.com fans on Facebook and get the day's most popular and talked-about Valley news, sports, entertainment and more - right in your newsfeed. You'll see what others are saying about the hot topics of the day.